Loose Slag from the Still Mill�. (Nov. 30thth)
1. Stewart should be benched. He should have been sent to the pine WEEKS ago.
2. That being said, I'm no more looking forward to watching Prozac attempt to QB, than I am looking forward to going to the dentist. As a matter of fact, I have a dental appointment this Thursday morning (really; no kidding). What a miserable day that is shaping up to be. Prozac has NO BUSINESS playing QB in the NFL. Sure, he looked "great" against Cinci. The Bengals were a 1-10 team, and their pass defense was near the very bottom of the NFL. And, they had a nice lead, so the Cinci defense was content to play soft. This softee pass defense, rife with clumsy oafs just recently picked from the waiver wire, is NOTHING like the defense Tomwhack will see on Thurs. nite. The Jax secondary is FAR better than the sive-like Cinci secondary, and the pass rush will have more pep, too. Prozac will show his true (read: inept) form on national TV, but Cowhead will be too stubborn to allow Gonzo some PT.
3. Speaking of Gonzo, I'm not real high on Gonzo as an NFL QB. I'm not impressed with his arm strength. That being said, I'm not going to pull a "Cowher" and REFUSE to give the man a chance. I'd like to see what he can do in a reg. season game with the starting lineup. Unlike Cowher, I'd like to groom and develop a youngster, and at worst, perhaps Gonzo can impress enough to warrant trading him for a 4th rounder. If Prozac gets the entire workload these last 5 games, I'll be enraged.
4. Stewart -- and Ward -- should be used in Slash-type roles these final 5 weeks. Ward hasn't set the world on fire as a starting receiver. And, we should give more WR PT to Troy, Shaw, and Malcolm. Plus, if Cowhead was willing to use Stewart as a WR when we already had Thigpen, Hastings, Mills, and CJ, why the devil would he REFUSE to use Stewart at WR with the current group of WR mediocrity?
- I reviewed the entire videotape Monday nite. In my Sunday-report, I was a bit lenient on Lyons, who had a totally gack-laden game. He gummed up as many running plays as, well, Jon Witman. Which brings me to my next point --- as hard as I may have been on Witman in Sunday's report, I was not hard enough. Witman blew dead donkey chunks. He was outright pitiful. He was literally getting knocked on his ASS a few times on lead-blocks. He gummed up the running game more than sticking tar in a car engine. He was flat-out disgustingly inadequate.
- Bettis was terribly hasty, and made a poor read, on the 4th and short running play in the 4th qtr. Faneca pulled, and scoop-blocked a Bengal to the inside. Bettis, seeing this, inexplicably cut right INTO that defender, rather than simply following the play behind Faneca's butt -- which is where is was designed to go and where there was amply room to run.
- I reviewed the Huntley fumble. There was some speculation that the oafish Conrad -- who was clumsily lead-blocking on the play -- may have inadvertently kicked the ball out of Hunt's hands. The video wasn't entirely conclusive either way, but I'm not convinced Conrad's foot dilodged the ball. I think it was the case of Hunt, as he began to lunge for the 1st down, lost a lil' grip o nthe ball and his thigh dislodged it.
- The Gildong Report is forthcoming. It typically comes out on Tues. or Wed. I've already gotten 2 emails wondering "where is it?" for this week. While I sincerely appreciate these queries --- if no one browsed or cared about this web site, this wouldn't be worth the effort --- I typically don't publish the Gildong Report until late Tues. or on Wed. Bear with me, folks. J
The Still Mill